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Kings’ Sim Bhullar realizing tough reality of NBA

Toronto native Sim Bhullar, trying to stick with Sacramento, now aware of what he needs to do to survive against “bigger, faster and stronger” players.

Toronto's Sim Bhullar is the first player of South Asian heritage to sign with an NBA team. The 7-foot-5, 355-pound Bhullar says the speed of the NBA game is faster than he expected. (Rocky Widner / NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

SACRAMENTO, CALIF.—There was less than 20 seconds left in a nondescript NBA pre-season opener at a neutral site, a game that had been decided, mop-up time if ever there was some in a professional basketball game.

It was also a moment that Sim Bhullar called “surreal” and one that he will remember forever.

The 7-foot-5 Toronto native, tilting at windmills trying to stick with the Sacramento Kings, will always have the memory of getting into his first game, Sunday in Vancouver against a Toronto Raptors team he grew up watching.

“The game in Vancouver, the 19 seconds I got on the court, it was pretty crazy,” Bhullar said Tuesday morning here before the Kings and Raptors wound up their pre-season series.

He is struggling to handle the speed of the game, the athleticism of the men he’s going up against every day in practice and the harsh financial realities of the NBA.

It will be shocking if he’s still with the Kings when the regular season begins and the goals he’s set for himself seem realistic when that’s taken into consideration.

“I’m doing pretty good, getting up and down the court, banging with the other vets,” he said. “Definitely the speed of the game (is a surprise), it’s a lot faster than college or any other league in the world, the guys are bigger, faster and stronger than anybody else you ever went up against.”

The reality is hitting home.

“I definitely set a couple of goals for myself,” he said. “Definitely to get better (and to) put in extra hours in the gym, being the last one to leave and the first one to get here.”

Regardless of what Bhullar’s future holds, he is a trailblazer. With roots that trace back to Punjab, he is widely considered the best player of Indian descent and is touted as a standard-bearer for future players from that country. It’s not something that’s in the forefront of his mind every day but it can’t ever be completely forgotten.

“I don’t feel responsibility or pressure,” he said, “It’s basketball; at the end of the day, it’s a game. It comes and goes, some days you’re hot, some days you’re cold. Honestly, it’s just a game.

“(But) you definitely think about it, you hear it from other people and that’s when you really notice it.”

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